southern comfort
by ImmortalRoseOfTheThorns
Summary: Memoirs of a zombie apocalypse. Daryl/Harry


**Title**: _**southern comfort**_

**Pairing**: Daryl Dixon/Harry Potter, Glenn Rhee/Maggie Greene, Rick Grimes/Lori Grimes

**Fandom**: Harry Potter AU/Walking Dead AU

**Disclaimer**: I don't own anything, not Harry Potter or The Walking Dead. They belong to JK Rowling and AMC. I am only playing with them for funsies.

**Warnings**: ZOMBIES, angst, tragedy, major character death, adult content, bad language, slash, **MAJOR AU**, **SPOILERS**

**Summary**:_ Memoirs of a zombie apocalypse._

**AN**: I've only watched the first season of Walking Dead, but I do love it. I think because of Daryl. The plots good, of course, good characters, and Daryl, of course. Sadly, I've been dragged headfirst into another new fandom, and I've still got dozens of stories to finish and upload and hopefully, I will be doing that soon. Lot of Walking Dead/HP ones. I'm terrible, I know.

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_**~ southern comfort ~**_

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**Comfort**

None of them have known each other long, this rag tag group of survivors that are only all together through luck, coincidence and chance, but there is something about the way they all fit together that makes them all feel safe.

**Kiss**

They don't know who kisses the other first (Harry says Daryl, and Daryl obviously says Harry in return) but all either can remember was yelling until they were hoarse, surrounded by dead walkers and then their lips were pressing together, too much teeth to be a proper kiss and Harry shoved Daryl away when he ran a blood covered hand through his messy hair and _tugged_ until he shivered.

**Soft**

There is nothing soft about Daryl; he's all rough words, rough skin peppered with scars and marks and an even rougher personality, but if anyone ever calls him an unfeeling man, Harry will just laugh and think of Daryl, a lost little girl and Cherokee roses.

**Pain**

His side is burning and he can feel every single muscle in his body protesting as he drags himself up the hill, but he has to get back; he's found the doll and now he'll find the girl so he can tell the mother and she can stop crying herself to sleep.

**Worry**

They all run like headless chickens when Judith gets sick and its only Hershel insisting that she was only teething that makes them calm enough to get her medicine.

**Whimsy**

Its Andrea who finds the horse, Carl who pleads to keep it, Beth who names it and Daryl who struggles to teach it, and Hershel that has to comfort his daughters when he didn't come back from the raid, alongside Tyreese.

**Wasted**

Everyone drinks at the CDC, even the kids plying some from their mothers, before spitting it out in disgust, and Daryl downs bottle of whiskey after bottle of whiskey, until he feels warm and full and his head is fuzzy. The English kid challenges him to a drinking contest and within four shots, is passed out under the table and Daryl laughs like he hasn't in years.

**Happiness**

Daryl ain't ever been happy since his ma died when he was a boy, not when Merle went off the rails and his daddy kept using the belt, but this feeling he gets in his chest, when Carol offers him his washed clothes with a small smile, Grimes' brat tries to take his crossbow when he's not looking and backchats when he catches him, and the old man scolds and calls him son, this soothing feeling is alright for now, at least until he finds Merle.

**War**

It's almost unsettling how easy they fall into it, fighting the Governor, how they ready themselves because it's not only the dead they need to fear now.

**Ears**

They don't have any money but that doesn't stop them playing poker with a worn pack of cards found in the back of Dale's RV, and it's a unanimous decision that Glenn and his twitching ears was the absolute worst player.

**Name**

They settle on Judith after a while, but Daryl doesn't call her anything but Little Ass Kicker.

**Sensual**

This is pretty much the longest relationship either of them have had, but they don't share a cell, sneaking into the others every other night, but there's a time, where they are both half sleep and bathing in the afterglow where Daryl runs his hand up and down the knobs of his spine, across his bony ribs, and Harry pretends to be completely asleep, otherwise he knows he would stop.

**Death**

Harry never knew death had a smell until everything happened, and now it is everywhere, cloying and sticking in their throats like smoke, lingers on their skin no matter how hard they wash, and then there's that bitter smell of the undead which seems to get closer and stronger every single day.

**Sex**

Daryl couldn't get out of there fast enough when he and the kid stumbled in on Maggie with her legs wrapped around Glenn's skinny waist, but Harry stayed long enough to laugh and offer his own two cents of "Put your back into it, Glenn!" as Daryl dragged him down the hall to the sound of Maggie's indignant shrieks and the chinaman's stuttering.

**Touch**

Daryl flings the rope of squirrels at _Rick_ _Grimes' _face and he goes to tackle him, but someone has already gripped him and yanked him away, Walsh, that dickhead, and there is another hand directly against his heart and a voice in his ear, hissing, "Daryl."

**Weakness**

He's had this weakness for years, he knows he has, tried to deny it as much as he could, but he decides to let Harry take the lead and push him gently onto the cot 'cause the kid always had his back, and if he has to be weak with someone, he'll be weak with him.

**Belief**

Harry hasn't been home to England in years, knows that the virus, sickness whatever it is, has spread worldwide, but he can still imagine his family, safe and untouched, in their old home, Molly bustling away in the kitchen, Arthur rooting around in his tool shed, wondering out loud, both of them, why he hasn't come home like he promised; it's the only way he can sleep at night, hoping they're waiting.

**Speed**

It's the most stupidest thing he's ever done, and that includes jumping onto the back of a mountain troll, but as Glenn speeds down the highway, alarm blaring in their ears, Harry whoops at the top of his voice from the passenger seat and hears Glenn echo him a second later, regardless of who or what could hear them.

**Wind**

The heat is almost brutal in Atlanta, never more obvious when water was scarce, they were running for their lives all the time and air conditioning was a thing of the past, so every tiny breeze was a blessing.

**Freedom**

Back when Whimsy was still alive, Harry loved riding him around the yard, but it never quite came close to the freedom he felt when riding his old broomstick; still, it was close enough.

**Life**

Harry doesn't talk to Daryl for almost a week the first time he brings a doe back to the camp.

**Jealousy**

It took getting Glenn drunk for him to admit the problem, how he felt inferior to Harry when Maggie was involved, so Harry guessed it was an alright time to casually mention that he was shagging Daryl.

**Hands**

It is an age before Rick is Rick again, a Rick without Lori, and Harry cracks two knuckles and Rick's nose when he attempts to jumpstart the healing process by beating the crap out of him.

**Taste**

Havoc always ensues whenever Glenn brings back anything remotely resembling candy; Maggie won't admit it, but she has the worst sweet tooth out of all of them and Glenn can't resist almost giving her everything.

**Devotion**

Carol's the one who noticed first, the subtle touches, how even when he tried to hide it, Harry could get Daryl to crack the smallest smile, and the easy way the two seemed to just fit together, however impossible it really seemed.

**Forever**

Daryl digs the grave himself, snaps at Beth until she cries and runs back into her cell when she tries to help, growls and hisses until they all leave him be, and he'll feel guilty later because Harry adored her, but he's too mad right now, digging until his hands blister, crack and bleed and curses the bastard for daring to promise forever, when forever was so short for him and even longer for Daryl.

**Blood**

It doesn't hurt at first; if anything it's just shock he feels as rotten teeth sink into the soft flesh of his arm, red, terrible, red blood bubbling and spilling down the walkers neck as he _tears_ and _tears_, and Carol is screaming in his ear, as she tries to hold him as close as she can to her chest, and an arrow finally strikes too late, a chunk of numb flesh ripped from his arm, but Harry can't move, can only stare and the pain comes later.

**Sickness**

He knows he's infected long before Rick admits it to the group; he's known since they lived back in the quarry and he reached deep inside of himself for his magic, wand shattered back when he fled Atlanta, and felt it slip through his fingers like trying to catch water, and he knows that part of him died a long time ago.

**Melody**

T-Dog has the worst singing voice most of them had ever heard, so he generally gets the whole shower block to himself.

**Star**

They all take turns looking after Judith, just as they do everything else, she's Rick's kid first and foremost regardless of Shane's actions, but whenever Harry has her for the night, he takes her near the windows and names all the stars for her until she falls asleep.

**Home**

It's been more than ten years since he last saw it, but he still dreams of talking portraits, moving staircases and pumpkins large enough to fit a dozen full grown men inside.

**Confusion**

Daryl isn't in the car and Harry can't breathe, stops for a moment and only Rick's steadying hand stops him from falling as his step falters, and he's speaking, _he's alive don't worry he's alive he's with Merle he's with his brother_, but Harry only gets the gist that Daryl has left, left the prison, left the group, left _him_ and Harry can't say anything, because he doesn't _understand_ anything anymore.

**Fear**

He's never been more scared in his entire life, when his best friend limps towards him, her bloodied mouth admitting nothing but a death rattle that chills him down to his very bones.

**Lightning/thunder**

Harry gags on the smell, the smell of him, the stained coat loosely draped over his shoulders, the walker that walks right into him, gives a chilling moan, and then carries on moving. They're almost to the gate and Harry can hear Glenn picking up the pace just behind him, sees Officer Friendly looking like he's refraining himself from sprinting, when there is an almighty rumble above them, and Harry feels something wet drop onto the top of his head, followed by another, and then another and can only spit out, "Oh, bollocks."

**Bonds**

Ribbons wrap around his wrists and tie him to the headboard, and Daryl lets out a shaky breath before Harry leans forward and twines their fingers together, and he feels himself relax and sink deeper into the mattress, knowing that Harry would stop if he said so.

**Sordid**

He's a Dixon and Dixon's are poisonous, but good ol' Merle Dixon is nothing compared to this Governor.

**Soliloquy**

Harry comes back from a supply run with some old torn book that looks like its seen better days, some Shakespeare shit that Daryl can't see the point of, but the kid sits and doesn't even read it, just smells the pages, traces the fading ink, turns the crinkled pages and says how his best friend loved books.

**Gift**

The kid and the Chinaman come back from the last supply run and the kid just throws him a bottle of Southern Comfort with a small smirk and walker blood caked on his arms.

**Completion**

Harry is loud during, making these desperate moans every time Daryl thrusts, so sinks his teeth into either the pillow or Daryl's shoulder or even his own hand to stifle them because noise travels so easily in the prison, but when he comes, he's silent, stops breathing for a split second, shaking under Daryl's hands until he gasps for breath and pulls the older man down for another breathless kiss.

**Smile**

Rick is a shadow of his former self, as if all that was good and true about him died with his wife and he can barely look at his own children, so Carol and Beth struggle with Judith between them, and Harry tries as much as he can with Carl, but Judith is the only one who can pull a smile from him.

**Innocence**

Little Ass Kicker is perfect in every way and all of them are speechless, in awe of her.

**Clouds**

"That's an axe... that's a knife... that's a sword."

"I think I'm beginning to see a pattern developing here, Michonne."

**Sky**

They all miss the days, no one more so than Andrea, back in the quarry, when they had been full of hope and spent hours wiling away the time underneath the hot sun.

**Near**

They had been overjoyed when they found the doll, but when what was once Sophia stumbles out of the barn, they realise they were never really close to finding her at all.

**Natural**

He skins the animals with a finesse that can only be born through a lifetime of trudging through the woods.

**Horizon**

After they lose Lori and T-Dog and with a newborn crying at all hours and the prison block seeming even emptier than before, no one ever really got to sleep much, but the first person awake usually joins whoever's on watch to see the sun rise together. (Except Glenn and Maggie; they weren't allowed up there together due to an inability to control themselves)

**Valiant**

"Daryl, you're a good man-" and Daryl kisses him to make him shut the fuck up and it was either that or hit him and Daryl's tired of hurting people.

**Virtuous**

No one's particularly sure who started it, just that it did start when they had the refugees from Woodbury join them and these included three boys Maggie's age and younger and they noticed the young and pretty Beth, and suddenly Michonne was showing off her skills with her katana in the yard and attacking the dummies they made for target practice in their metaphorical groins, Harry was sharpening his already pristine knives during communal dinners with his gaze fixed on them and Daryl was his usual loving self around them, and Beth was throwing tantrums about how there was no boys to talk to, but Hershel was thanking them all with a big smile on his old, wrinkled face.

**Hair**

Harry can never walk past Beth's cell without her throwing a brush at him and yelling at him to sort his hair out.

**Defeat**

Daryl is a fighter and so he fights to the end, but when Rick points the pistol to the middle of his forehead, tears running down his dirt stained face and his finger bends to pull the trigger, Daryl is so pleased he can finally stop fighting.

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**THE END**

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**Words: 2397**


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